Breathe and Save Yourself the Headache

Test time.

With someone watching you, lie on your back and take a huge breath in through your nose and slowly release it out of your mouth.

Now ask the person watching if they saw your chest and shoulders rise up towards your ears. I bet you a dollar they say yes. 

This video of is of yours truly that demonstrates bad vs good breathing mechanics. What you are looking for is movement in your mid-drift only, you don't want to be shrugging your shoulders up and down.

Being a chest/shoulder breather is probably what is giving you all those headaches and all that neck pain from the muscles in the shoulder, chest and back complex constantly being active for every single breathe you take (about 20,000 a day).

You’ll also take very shallow breathes that barely reach your lungs resulting in poor oxygen delivery throughout the body.

Will massage help this? No way. Not unless you’re going to stop breathing!

Massage will only decrease the tension in those muscles but as soon as you breathe again then they'll tighten right back up.

By learning to use your diaphragm to breathe, only then can you decrease the activity of those muscles which will then give them a chance to actually chill out for a while helping to alleviate the nagging neck pain and headaches.

Improved oxygen circulation through the body can also help avoid the mid afternoon, dying for a nap sensation come 2pm when sitting at your desk at work. 

Do 10 big breathes twice a day, everyday, for the next month and notice the difference.

Cardio Designed to Actually Burn Fat

Albert Park Lake and the Tan are great running tracks for scenery but the way most people run (or shuffle) them is not really doing their fat loss or joints any good.

There is an actual sequence you can use for your cardio training that can ensure that you burn actual body fat and not just muscle, water or basic calories.

It's pretty easy to follow too.

Step 1 - Perform some basic interval training for 5 - 6 cycles.
Step 2 - Perform some active rest x 5mins
Step 3 - Perform some steady state aerobic training x 15 - 20mins

Like I said - easy.

Why does this work and my regular stuff doesn't? Glad you asked.

Step 1 - The interval training portion is designed to break fat away from your fat cells which means that you actually need to do this bit properly for the rest of it to work. Choose some basic interval set up like 30 seconds as hard as you can then 90 seconds at a half pace or 60 seconds hard with 120 seconds half pace. This also requires perfect adherence to a lpre workout ow carbohydrate nutritional plan.

Step 2 - The active rest portion lets the fat cells that have been broken away to move into the blood stream so make it a walking pace, either brisk or normal, for the 5 minutes.

Step 3 - The steady state cardio portion now utilises the released fat in the blood stream for energy so make it a 6 - 7 out of 10 effort level because if it's too fast then you'll go back into the step 1 of breaking the fat away but not actually burning it where it just reattaches back to the cell later.

If you can't run then you can use this for any cardio exercise mode you like. You could also use resistance exercises for the intervals. For example if you're doing 60 seconds on with 120 seconds off then 60 seconds of push ups is too much for most people so 30 seconds of push ups as hard and as fast as you can then break into some squat jumps x 30 seconds to make up the 60 second interval period.

And there you have it - fat burnt!!

What Your Resting Heart Rate Says about You

About couple of months ago I started taking my heart rate first thing in the morning and writing it down. I'd take my wrist site pulse for 30 seconds, double it and wholla - you've got your resting heart rate!

So why would you do this?

Our nervous system has 3 different sub-systems:

1. Central Nervous System (the brain)
2. Peripheral Nervous System (outside the brain and spinal chord)
3. Autonomic Nervous System (nerves and ganglia)

Right now we're goin to focus on the autonomic nervous system that has 2 parts to it eing:

1. Parasympathetic
2. Sympathetic

Ideally you want to be able to easily swing between these systems depending on the stress you encounter at that specific point in time. 

The paraympathetic nervous system is your chilled out, rauncho relaxo system while your sympathetic nervous system is your anxious, toned up (not in a good way), fight or flight system.

If your resting heart rate consistently above 60 beats per minute then you're sympathetic nervous system dominant.

This can spell trouble because the body feels and acts like it is under constant threat and stress resulting in broken sleep, poor recovery and fat storage from being in a state of "emergency" 24/7.

So you can see it's not just a matter of improving your fitness level, it's a matter of lifestyle.

It is crucial to your long term health if you can pin point some actions that you can put in place easily to combat when times are tough.

So for example if you take your heart rate and it's 3 or more beats above your daily average resting heart rate, then you know you're body is working overtime!

It might be best to make some time to get outside for a walk before work or at lunchtime.

Don't take work home with you.

Get to the gym.

Hit the road.

Get your cardi on and take in a movie.

Even better, hit us up for a be activated treatment session, that helps the body to get back to baseline, essentially resetting your body!

Take your resting heart rate every morning upon waking for 2 weeks and let us know where you're at!